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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

When a neighbor screamed she'd been shot, Colin Bruley grabbed his shotgun, found the victim and began treating her bloodied right leg.

Tonnetta Lee survived Tuesday's pre-dawn shooting at her Jacksonville apartment, and her sister and a neighbor praised Bruley's actions. But his employers, the same people who own the Arlington complex where Bruley lives, reacted differently. They fired him.Bruley, a leasing agent at the Oaks at Mill Creek, said he lost his job after being told that brandishing the weapon was a workplace violation, as was failing to notify supervisors after the incident occurred. He'd worked at the Monument Road complex since December and for the owner, Village Green Cos., since 2005.

* * *"Colin demonstrated extremely poor judgment in responding to this situation," the complaint said. "Colin's failure to immediately report this incident ... could have serious ramifications to the property, its associates and residents."So, if Bruley had "immediately reported the incident," rolled over and went back to sleep, he'd still be employed today. And Tonetta Lee would be dead.

But in that scenario, the sacrosanct procedures and exquisite sensitivities of the white-gloved management at Village Green would not have been violated, so that would have been chalked up as an acceptable cost of doing business. At worst, they'd have had the apartment cleaned up and available for rental by August 1.